In response to Artic's request for help, a primative howto on archery.

Equipment Required:
Bow or Crossbow
Ammunition (Arrows for regular Bows, Quarrels for Crossbows)
Quiver to store ammunition (whilst ammunition can be carried loose, quivers can hold large quantities of ammo, and have a code that allows all the arrows within to be targetted by certain actions)

Useful skills to know (note that there are other applicable skills and even spells, but you have to find out something for yourselves):
Bowery
Fletchery
Archery

It should be noted that whilst anyone can join the Royal Archers subguild, to excel with the bow you need to be a Ranger mainguild.

You should note the following:
1)At the moment, bows can only be fired at targets in the same room. (sidenote: I don't expect this to change)
2)You cannot shoot a bow when engaged in melee - the bow functions as a form of club/staff. Note that over time, this will damage the bow. However, party members behind other party members (in other words, in the second or third rank, with a party member directly in front in the first rank) don't engage in melee.
3)Bows require 2 hands to fire, but you may be able to carry a bow in just one hand...
4)Bows are very useful for hunting.
5)Make sure you use a bow that plays to your abilities.
6)Looking at your target will help you choose the best ammunition to use, if you have multiple choices.
7)Watch the channels... information that shouldn't be given out sometimes slips out between highbies
8)The correct background choice will allow you to start with a bow, a quiver and some arrows.

Mods should feel free to edit out any part of this which breaches the "Sharing Information" rule.
Anybody who has comments etc. for improvement etc. should post a reply so that the information can be collated by the mods for later posting.

the part about bows being useful for hunting is a bit misleading, they're only useful if you don't like losing spears

cayldric

Posts: 16

Posted:
Thu Apr 29, 2004 09:52 am

Actually, bows are useful for hunting because you can carry more ammo for a bow than you can spears. And of course, arrows are so much cheaper than spears :p
In addition, when hunting (afaik, anyway) you throw your weapon... except for the bow which you fire.

The enhanced damage I guess is a property of Hunting.

iluth
Posts: 164
Location: Blighty

Posted:
Thu Apr 29, 2004 23:21 pm

yes that's what i said, bows are only useful if you don't like losing spears. hunting damage with a bow sucks